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Warnken, LLC’s Deserving Client Gets the UM Policy Limits

Warnken, LLC’s Negligence Team Fights to Get $100,000 for Victim of Uninsured Driver

by Mike Grogan

Special to Warnken, LLC

 

Soon after Christian S.’s car was rear-ended by an uninsured motorist while stopped at a red light in December 2022, the 38-year-old man learned he would have to undergo costly, painful treatments. As miserable as that news was, Christian would soon learn of more trouble ahead. What he didn’t see coming was the battle it took to get his insurance company to fully pay his medical bills despite his having paid his premiums, on time, for years.

Two years after the life-altering crash, Warnken, LLC secured a settlement in which the insurance company agreed to pay him $100,000, the maximum he was entitled to under his policy. The resolution didn’t come until after the insurer offered paltry sums which Christian considered insulting.

Warnken attorney Angelica A. Carliner, whose team is currently handling more than 300 personal injury cases, was eager to fight. Twenty to 25 percent of her crash cases are on behalf of victims of under-insured or uninsured drivers. In cases involving at-fault drivers who don’t have insurance, the other driver will often see his insurance company turn from ally to adversary.

“They’re really trying to limit their exposure,” Carliner said of insurance companies who find themselves without a defendant to whom liability and compensation can be fully shifted. “As you know, [these insurance companies] are for-profit. They’re not in the business of paying claims.”

  

PAINFUL TREATMENT

Christian suffered an injury that was ultimately diagnosed as thoracic radiculopathy, a condition causing severe pain to his upper back. He initially attempted conservative treatment, including physical therapy, to relieve the pain. When that didn’t work, he was ultimately referred to pain management where he received temporary relief through a series of injections including steroids, medial branch blocks and nerve ablations. These invasive and painful treatments required anesthesia to perform.

The pain initially worsened after the injections before becoming more manageable, Carliner said. That spoke volumes about the agony her client suffered.

“It would get worse before it got better,” she said. “Someone who’s not in debilitating pain is not going to go through that.”

Christian’s physician documented that the patient would regularly need the injections. “It definitely impacted my life severely,” said Christian, a married father of two.  “I remember going to the zoo shortly afterward with my son and I couldn’t even carry him. And this is months after. …It’s pretty sad.”

 

THE LEGAL BATTLE

Eighteen months into Christian’s treatment, Warnken began settlement negotiations. By then, Christian had incurred more than $37,000 in medical bills. The insurance company offered $26,000. Not only was the sum $11,000 short of what Christian was already billed, it did not account for his past pain and suffering and the pain and suffering to come.

Carliner had seen these feeble calculations from insurance companies before. Rather than consult with medical professionals involved in the actual cases, insurers will feed diagnostic codes and other general medical data into computer programs that use algorithms to estimate (and lowball)medical costs.

“They always try to say: ’The bills are too high so we’re cutting it or we don’t think he needed this treatment,’” Carliner said. “And they come up with all kinds of excuses. [Often] there’s no medical justification. They don’t have a doctor or nurse most of the time, and certainly not in this case, looking at the file and making these determinations.”

In three months of negotiations, the Warnken personal injury team never wavered from its belief the case was worth the maximum allowed by his policy – $100,000. Christian was insulted by the insurance company’s final offer of $54,524 and instructed Warnken to prepare his case for trial.

When the case was ready for Warnken’s litigation team, Carliner sent correspondence reminding them of their legal obligation to act in good faith. If it did not honor the maximum terms of the policy, Warnken would seek an excess verdict (one that exceeds the policy limit). And Warnken wasn’t going to stop there. It would simultaneously pursue an action against the insurance company for failing to act in good faith.

Carliner’s letter resulted in the insurance company agreeing to pay the $100,000. The cost and time of a court battle was averted.

“She really knew what she was doing,” Christian said of his attorney. “She was certain that we were going to be able to get more than the initial settlement. So, she encouraged me to stay vigilant.”

While the client found the insurer’s initial offers “upsetting,” Carliner found them infuriating, propelling her to fight harder.

“When it’s your own insurance company, it hits a little harder,” Carliner said. “The law says he’s entitled to be compensated for this. It’s not for the insurance company to say what the charge is. The charge is what the charge is and you have to pay it.”

Uninsured Motorist Coverage and Compensation – An Ugly Irony

Section by Byron Warnken

If you sue a defendant with a $100,000 insurance policy and you get a $300,000 verdict, the insurance company is going to pay the verdict.  (This assumes the plaintiff demanded to settle the case for within the insurance limits and the insurer refused.) In this scenario, the insurance company left their insured hanging out to dry. There is a negligent failure to settle claim against the insurance company. The insurance company generally always pays these verdicts on behalf of their at-fault insured driver.

However, if the jackass that hit you was uninsured and you must turn to your own uninsured/underinsured insurance policy – the very policy for which you pay premiums – you are not likely to be afforded the same recompense.  When it’s your own policy, you are not pursuing a claim in negligence, you are pursuing a claim for breach of contract. You had a contract with your insurance company to pay you $100,000 in the scenario and they didn’t, so they breached their contract.  Getting the insurance company to pay over the $100,000 is much harder, even when you get that verdict for $300,000.

The first scenario is a third-party claim.  The second scenario is a first-party claim. In the first scenario, the insurance company pays out the victim, the third-party. In the second scenario, they pay out the counter-party to their insurance contract.

And you guessed it – the insurance companies know how much harder it is in Maryland to get the additional money out of the insurance in the first-party scenario. Do you think that makes them less likely to pony up the insurance limits without a trial? Their shareholders would certainly like them to put up less.

In the Warnken, LLC example from this article, the insurance company did the right thing (after being threatened with bad faith).  However, that doesn’t happen enough. The way to make it happen more – stronger bad faith laws and a strong Maryland Insurance Administration that spends more time looking out for policyholders and less time protecting insurance companies.

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